How I Built a Resume Builder in JavaFX with PDF Export

Creating resumes manually can be repetitive and time-consuming. So, I built a JavaFX-based desktop application that lets users easily create, preview, and export professional resumes — all from a clean and modern interface.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through the features, tech stack, architecture, and key learnings behind this project.

🚀 Project Overview

Project Name: Resume Builder Desktop App
Duration: September 2024 – December 2024
Tech Stack: Java, JavaFX, FXML, CSS, iText PDF, Maven

This Java-based desktop app allows users to fill in their details through an intuitive UI and export their resume as a well-formatted PDF in seconds.

✨ Key Features

✅ Clean tabbed UI for entering personal info, education, work experience, and projects
✅ Real-time preview of resume layout while filling the form
✅ PDF export using iText with custom styling
✅ MVC architecture for clean code separation
✅ Modern UI/UX with FXML and custom CSS
✅ Proper input validation and error handling

🏗️ Tech Stack Breakdown

Technology	Purpose
JavaFX	UI framework for building the application
FXML	Declarative UI layout
CSS	Styling for the JavaFX components
Java	Core logic and application structure
Maven	Project and dependency management
iText PDF	Generating and exporting resume as PDF
MVC Architecture	For separating concerns between UI, logic, and data

🔄 Application Architecture

cssCopyEdit[User Input (FXML Forms)]
         ↓
[Controller Layer (JavaFX)]
         ↓
[Model Layer (Java Classes)]
         ↓
[Service Layer]
     ↓             ↓
[PDFExportService] [Validation]
         ↓
  [iText PDF Output]

This separation helped me keep the codebase maintainable, modular, and scalable.

🖼️ UI Screenshots

🔐 Input Validation

I implemented basic input validation across all sections to ensure:

No empty fields
Proper email and phone number formatting
Real-time error feedback in the UI

📄 PDF Export Functionality

For exporting resumes:

I used iText to dynamically generate styled PDFs
Sections are organized using font styles, margins, and layout templates
Users get a clean PDF version of their resume with just one click

🧠 Key Learnings

Built modular components using JavaFX + MVC principles
Gained hands-on experience with form design, state management, and PDF generation
Learned how to structure technical projects for both usability and maintainability
Practiced writing developer documentation and UI flow diagrams for the README

📌 GitHub Repository

👉 View Source Code on GitHub
(If not uploaded yet, publish it with a clean README and add this link later.)

📣 Final Thoughts

Building this JavaFX Resume Builder taught me how to combine backend logic with a clean UI, export data to professional documents, and design software that’s actually useful.

It’s also one of the projects that helped me improve my technical writing by documenting it clearly for others on GitHub.

🧠 Coming Soon

Stay tuned for:

✍️ "Beginner’s Guide to Java OOP (with Diagrams)"
🎯 "Building a Portfolio Website with Next.js and Tailwind CSS"

📝 How I Built a Resume Builder Using JavaFX (with PDF Export)